According to a Health
Canada study of 97 Ontario farmers, 2,4-D, the most common weedkiller
on Canadian lawns and golf courses, is often absorbed into the semen of
men who spray the pesticide and then passed on to their partners during
sex. If the woman is pregnant, the fetus is also exposed.

The department wants
to know what if the men's exposure could harm their children.

Health Canada calls
the pesticide amounts "trace levels." About half of the men
had detectable levels of pesticides, averaging 20 to 30 parts per million
in seminal fluid. Those with 2,4-D in their semen generally had it in
their urine as well.

"Given the importance
of semen as a potential carrier of chemicals posing reproductive hazards,
it is crucial to understand the relationship between pesticide-handling
practices, the presence and levels of pesticide residues in semen and
the risk of adverse reproductive outcomes," the department said in
a summary of the study, which was published in a research journal called
Reproductive Toxicity.

The study is the first
to make some initial estimates of exposure and comparisons between pesticides
levels in semen and urine. The Ontario farmers were not so bad compared
with farmers in Argentina, whose 2,4-D levels were as much as 300 times
higher than those of Ontario men. The men in Argentina had significant
damage to their sperm cells.